Overclock Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3Ghz ? Safe ?

1 2	Is it safe to Overclock your processor if so why or why not ? or what are the alternatives of speeding up your system without damaging your hardware ? Links or any advice would help Cheers :D overclock pc speedup asked Jun 06 '10 at 23:54 Fuzz1000 156●7●11●22

4 Answers:

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Yes sorry what i meant to say in my question was is it safe to overclock a Stock 3ghz E8400 Intel Chip. Sorry if you were mislead bad wording on my part.

But thanks Blind Fury for mentioning that, and i will take your word for it.

Also i have 4 main fans running in my tower, if anyone was wondering.

answered Jun 07 '10 at 00:30

Fuzz1000
156●7●11●22

I can't personally guarantee you nothing will go wrong if you try overclocking.
But like I said the chances of something happening are very low, and yes it can lower the life span of the computer but if you're not planning having that computer for the next 6 years I think it would be fine.
I love overclocking and I do it on my own computer all the time.
I'm currently running my 2.66GHz CPU @ 4GHz.
If you would like to give it a go I'll give you as much help as you neee :)

(Jun 07 '10 at 00:38) Blind Fury

Ok then can you help me configure the FSB Settings.

I have a Phenox BIOS, could you give me settings on what is safe, because I set it to link, but ppl keep telling me you have to set it 2 unlinked and configure both the values separately ??

care to expand ?

(Jun 07 '10 at 01:32) Fuzz1000

Sorry I took so long to reply I had to go for a bit.
Linked and unlinked just refers to whether the RAM and the FSB are linked.
The way overclocking works is you have a FSB and 2 multipliers.
The speed of the CPU is determined by the FSB times the CPU multiplier.
Same with the RAM, the RAM speed is determined by the FSB times the RAM multiplier.
If it is linked that means that if you turn your FSB up you are going to overclock your CPU AND your RAM.
Because you only have 1 FSB.
But if it's unlinked then the RAM will not be overclocked by turning up the FSB because it is no longer linked the the FSB.
So if you don't want overclock your RAM then put it as unlinked, I suggest doing that.

(Jun 07 '10 at 02:21) Blind Fury

Sweet.

Didn't know that thanks for the informative help once again it helps me better understand Overclocking.

(Jun 07 '10 at 02:24) Fuzz1000

I have 2 questions.

What motherboard do you have, or at least what brand?
You can find this out by opening up CPU-Z, if you don't have it it's just a simple download, just google it.
Do you have a custom CPU cooler or just the stock CPU cooler?

(Jun 07 '10 at 02:43) Blind Fury

NVIDIA nforce 790i Ultra SLI
No i have an Alienware System came STOCK, Area-51 R6 if that helps ?

(Jun 07 '10 at 02:58) Fuzz1000

Try just changing the FSB to 356 (3.2GHz), and putting it to "unlinked"
And leave everything else the same.
If you don't want to go that high, just put the FSB to 345 (3.1GHz)
Boot into Windows and run CPU-Z see if it worked (or just see what Windows says).

(Jun 07 '10 at 03:32) Blind Fury

Ok, will try that out today later on in the day and will keep you updated on the situation.

(Jun 07 '10 at 03:37) Fuzz1000

Had any luck?
Or not tried it yet?

(Jun 08 '10 at 06:33) Blind Fury

Tried it and it sped up a bit but nothing like mind blasting speed. LOL, i dont wanna ramp it up 2 much but it did speed it up faster than it was. So yea if i want any faster i would have to upgrade my hardware.

But all in all thanks for all your help i will definitely be asking you in the future more questions relating to the PC if i come across any issues or problems.

Cheers

(Jun 08 '10 at 19:24) Fuzz1000

No problem, glad I could help :)
You could buy a custom cooler to overclock it further, but it would probably be cheaper to just upgrade anyway :P

(Jun 09 '10 at 05:02) Blind Fury

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Overclocking is making your hardware do something that it is not designed to do but it can do by pushing itself. So by definition it is not safe. The only alternative to overclocking for getting faster hardware is, unfortunately, buying faster hardware. Just because overclocking is not safe doesn't mean it is dangerous by the way, just want to clear that up. It might not be good for the hardware but as long as you keep it cool and don do anything stupid then you should be alright but you wont get the same life out of the overclocked hardware as you would the normal.

answered Jun 07 '10 at 00:04

Jambo310
116●6●7●13

Ok thanks for the information. Any type of program you would recommend that would squeeze a little bit more speed out rather than spending a lot of money ?

(Jun 07 '10 at 00:08) Fuzz1000

Sorry I haven't a clue, I don't overclock because, well I have no need for it I don't game or do anything resource intense.

(Jun 07 '10 at 00:11) Jambo310

Ok Jambo, thank you anyways appreciate the tips and info though helped me understand the situation better and how i should approach it.

(Jun 07 '10 at 00:35) Fuzz1000

Profile, profile, profile! Your CPU may not be what's slowing your computer down, or what's keeping your computer slow! Often times, you really want to fix your harddrive, or maybe your RAM or some other component.

Figure out what part of your PC is causing the other components to wait in your specific application. If you want to optimize system boot times, you clearly want to focus more on your harddrive, because bootup isn't very CPU-intensive. Number-crunching software can sometimes take advantage of your GPU, so look into purchasing a better (compatible) GPU if the software supports it.

While throwing more hertz at a problem may get it done quicker, there are sometimes better, cheaper alternatives which produce more significant results.

(Jun 07 '10 at 02:51) strager

So your saying it could be the speed of my Hard drive. RAM i think i am ok in that aspect, not 2 sure on the hard drive like you said it may need an upgrade i have the stock drive not to sure on the speed of it though, but i have a budget ver. so it may be slow. Also there isnt alot of space in it 2 begin with.

Thanks for your help, will consider this as well.

(Jun 07 '10 at 03:04) Fuzz1000

Well overclocking has its risks.
And yes you could break your computer in doing so.
But with that said although there is a risk involved, if you do it correctly the chances of breaking anything are very low.
A factor you have to be wary of is heat, if you don't have custom cooling I wouldn't overclock very far.
I am slightly confused at to what you are asking though, you said "Overclock Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3Ghz ? Safe ?".
An E8400 @ 3GHZ is stock though not overclocked so yes it is safe.
If you are wanting to overclock it to over 3GHz then I wouldn't go higher then 3.2GHz on a stock cooler depending on your temperatures.
You can monitor you temps using a program like "Core Temp".

If you need any further help, advise or questions, just reply.

answered Jun 07 '10 at 00:19

Blind Fury
985●32●41●53

0	I have a Pentium D @ 3.0. I think you will be fine. answered Jun 07 '10 at 02:22 matthall 91●1●4

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